Reds Option Noelvi Marte
The Reds announced Monday that they’ve optioned struggling outfielder Noelvi Marte to Triple-A Louisville. A corresponding move wasn’t announced, but FOX 19’s Charlie Goldsmith reports that Cincinnati is expected to recall outfielder Rece Hinds from Louisville in Marte’s place.
The 24-year-old Marte’s run with the Reds has been filled with peaks and valleys. The former top prospect came to Cincinnati as part of the blockbuster trade sending Luis Castillo to Seattle and burst onto the MLB scene with a .316/.366/.456 batting line in his first 123 plate appearances in 2023 — his age-21 season. He was popped for an 80-game PED ban the following spring and looked lost in his return to the majors later in the season, slashing just .210/.248/.301 in 242 turns at the plate.
Marte’s stock hit a low point after that 2024 campaign, and in 2025 he was moved from third base to right field to accommodate deadline pickup Ke’Bryan Hayes. Marte’s stock was trending down, but he took to right field nicely, posting solid defensive grades while rebounding at the plate. He appeared in 90 games — 56 of them in the outfield — and batted .263/.300/.448 with 14 homers and 10 steals. Defensive Runs Saved credited him as a strong defender on the grass (+4), while Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-2) was more bearish. Still, even a slightly negative mark for an infielder who learned the outfield on the fly — midseason, no less — suggested he had the potential to develop into a solid defender there.
Obscured a bit by that solid rebound effort in 2025, however, was a poor finish to the season. Marte floundered down the stretch with a .184/.214/.276 showing in his final 103 plate appearances of the season. He punched out 33 times (32%) against just four walks (3.9%).
Marte belted four homers in 56 plate appearances this spring, but he also continued on that worrisome K-BB trajectory from the end of the ’25 season. He walked just once this spring while fanning 16 times (28.6%). So far, his regular season output sits at just .138/.194/.138 with 10 strikeouts (32.3%) and two walks (6.5%) in 31 plate appearances. Marte has lacked any semblance of pitch recognition, chasing a staggering 47.4% of pitches he’s seen outside the strike zone this year. That’s sixth-worst among the 290 MLB hitters who’ve stepped into the batter’s box at least 30 times this year. His 71.5 mph average bat speed is down nearly two miles per hour from last year’s 73.3 mph.
If there’s a silver lining to Marte’s struggles, it’s that he won’t turn 25 until after the season ends and is still in the second of his three minor league option years. There’s ample time for him to right the ship and get back on track. Even combining his end-of-season slump, his rocky spring and his woeful start to 2026, we’re looking at a sample of fewer than 200 plate appearances. He made tons of hard contact during Cactus League play, and he’s still sporting a contact rate north of 90% on pitches within the strike zone. It stands to reason that if Marte can scale back his chase rate closer to the 33.7% he averaged from 2023-25, he could yet re-emerge as a quality hitter. That’d still be north of this year’s 29.5% league average, but not by an especially alarming measure.
From a service time vantage point, the demotion isn’t likely to impact Marte’s potential path to free agency. He entered the season needing only 33 days on the big league roster/injured list to reach two years of service. He’s already more than halfway there. He’ll very likely be back up this season, which would keep him on pace to hit the open market following the 2030 season (assuming he gets back on track and plays well enough to merit accruing six years of service, of course). It could cost him in arbitration, however. Marte was on a clear path to Super Two status, which would make him arbitration-eligible four times rather than the standard three, but if he spends a notable portion of time in the minors, he won’t reach Super Two designation after all.
In place of Marte, the Reds will apparently turn to the 25-year-old Hinds. He’s a career .191/.245/.506 hitter in 95 big league plate appearances. He’s been even more strikeout-prone in the majors (38.9%) than Marte has during his slump, but Hinds has enormous raw power and has gotten out to a big start in Louisville. He’s slashing .354/.475/.771 with five round-trippers in his first 61 cracks at the plate. More encouragingly, he’s walked a dozen times (19.7%) with a manageable 15 strikeouts (24.6%). Hinds chased more than 37% of pitches off the plate in Triple-A last year and nearly 40% in the majors. This year, he’s sitting on an improved 31.3% chase rate in Louisville.
Hinds wrecked Triple-A pitching last year, too (.302/.359/.563) and flashed potential 30-30 upside with 24 big flies and 21 steals in only 107 games. It seems unlikely that he’ll make enough contact to reach that ceiling, but his power is readily apparent and Statcast credited him with 98th percentile sprint speed in 2025. The power-speed combination is understandably alluring, and he’ll get another opportunity to show he can stick in the majors while Marte looks to get back on track down in Louisville.
Submit Your Questions For This Week’s Episode Of The MLBTR Podcast
On the MLB Trade Rumors podcast, we regularly answer questions from our readers and listeners. With the next episode set for Wednesday, we’re looking for MLBTR’s audience to submit their questions and we’ll pick a few to answer.
The 2026 season is a few weeks in. Do you have a question about a hot or cold start in the early going? The upcoming trade deadline? Next winter’s potential labor showdown? If you have a question on those topics or anything else baseball-related, we’d love to hear from you! You can email your questions to mlbtrpod@gmail.com.
Also, if you want to hear your voice on the podcast, send us your question in audio form and we might play it. iPhone users can find instructions on how to do so here.
In the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
The Opener: Freeland, Olson, Astros
Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Rockies’ Freeland dealing with shoulder issue:
Rockies southpaw Kyle Freeland was slated to start the club’s game against the Padres yesterday, but he was scratched due to shoulder soreness. After last night’s game, manager Warren Schaeffer told reporters (including the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders) that Freeland was day-to-day with a “tight” shoulder. Freeland has started the year with a 2.30 ERA and 3.95 FIP across three starts. Losing him would be a significant blow to the Rockies’ pitching staff, and the team would likely turn to someone like Tanner Gordon or Carson Palmquist to fill in for the veteran lefty in the event he requires a trip to the injured list.
2. Olson making history:
As noted by MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, Matt Olson made his 798th consecutive MLB start over the weekend. That tied him with Nellie Fox for the 11th-longest games started streak of all time, and he’ll take sole possession of 11th place with his 799th consecutive start against the Marlins this evening. It’s the longest streak baseball has seen since Miguel Tejada‘s 1,152 consecutive game streak ended nearly 20 years ago. If Olson can keep it up, he’ll be able to crack the all-time top ten next month. For now, he and the Braves will focus on squaring off against Marlins right-hander Eury Pérez (4.25 ERA in 20 starts last year) in a game scheduled for 7:15pm local time in Atlanta, where Grant Holmes (3.99 ERA in 22 appearances last year) will take the mound for the Braves.
3. Can the Astros snap their losing streak?
The Astros have dropped seven straight games amid a number of injuries to the club’s pitching staff. Tastsuya Imai, Mike Burrows and Lance McCullers Jr. are the remaining healthy members of the Opening Day rotation for a 6-10 Houston club that has lost both Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier to shoulder strains. They’ll send Burrows (3.94 ERA in 23 appearances last year) to the mound in hopes of avoiding an eighth straight loss, while the Mariners will counter with George Kirby (4.21 ERA in 23 starts last year) as he looks to build on a strong eight-inning performance against the Rangers last time out.
Phil Garner Passes Away
Former three-time All-Star and longtime manager Phil Garner passed away on Saturday at age 76. A statement released by Garner’s family praised the medical care given to Garner during his fight with pancreatic cancer, and said that “Phil never lost his signature spark of life he was so well known for or his love for baseball which was with him until the end.”
Debuting with the Athletics in 1973, Garner hit .260/.323/.389 over 6136 plate appearances and 1860 games with the A’s, Pirates, Astros, Dodgers, and Giants during his 16-year career as a big league player. He became Oakland’s everyday second baseman in 1975 and received his first All-Star nod in 1976, but he was dealt after that season as part of a nine-player trade with the Pirates.
Garner played both second and third base (with some appearances at shortstop) during his four-plus years in Pittsburgh. His best season in terms of both personal and team accomplishments came in 1979, when Garner had a career-best 3.9 fWAR while hitting .293/.359/.441 with 11 homers and 17 steals for the Pirates’ World Series-winning team, which remains the last Buccos club to win a championship. Garner was a huge part of that title run, delivering a phenomenal .472/.537/.722 slash line over 41 PA during the postseason.
The Pirates traded Garner to the Astros partway through the 1981 campaign, and he went on to have several more successful years in a Houston uniform before his production declined in 1987. The Dodgers acquired Garner in a trade partway through the 1987 campaign but the change of scenery didn’t spark his bat, and Garner then played 15 games with the Giants over his final year as a player.
Garner’s gritty and grinding playing style made him a fan favorite, and perhaps all you need to know about Garner is that he was known as “Scrap Iron,” a nickname coined by former Pirates announcer Milo Hamilton. The blunt and tough-but-fair approach stuck with Garner in his post-playing days, as he went onto a successful second career as a manager over 15 seasons with the Brewers, Tigers, and back in Houston with the Astros.
As a skipper, Garner posted a 985-1054 career record, beginning with a 92-win season as Milwaukee’s manager in 1992. This was the only winning record Garner would post in eight seasons with the Brewers and three seasons in Detroit (from 2000-02), but he broke through in 2004 after being hired to take over an Astros team that had a 44-44 record.
Houston went 48-26 the rest of the way under Garner, and fell just short of a World Series appearance after losing the NLCS to the Cardinals in a memorable seven-game battle. The Astros beat St. Louis in a rematch the next season for the first pennant in Houston franchise history, though the Astros were swept by the White Sox in the World Series.
We at MLB Trade Rumors extend our condolences to Garner’s family, friends, and many fans.
Blue Jays Re-Sign Josh Fleming On Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays are re-signing left-hander Josh Fleming on a minor league deal, as Mitch Bannon of The Athletic has reported. Toronto previously signed Fleming to a minor league deal in February and briefly called him up before designating him for assignment last week, at which point he elected free agency.
A fifth-round pick by the Rays back in 2017, Fleming made his big league debut in the shortened 2020 season an made a solid first impression with a 2.78 ERA across his first 32 2/3 innings of work as a rookie. That strong production was belied by weak peripherals, however, and in 2021 Fleming found himself exposed with a lackluster 5.09 ERA in 104 1/3 frames as a swing man for Tampa. Fleming stuck with the Rays for two more seasons, posting a 5.40 ERA in 22 appearances as a long reliever and spot starter. He was non-tendered by the Rays after the 2023 season and joined the Pirates on a one-year deal, where he pitched to a decent 4.02 ERA in 31 1/3 innings. He did not find his way to the majors last year and spent the entire 2025 campaign at the Triple-A level with the Mariners before joining Toronto this past offseason.
Now that Fleming is back in the organization, the lefty can be called upon to help a beleaguered Blue Jays pitching staff. Bowden Francis, Cody Ponce, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, and Jose Berrios are all already on the injured list. Veteran right-hander Max Scherzer is currently pitching through forearm tendinitis but could be facing an IL stint of his own after 2 1/3 innings of eight-run baseball. Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reports that Trey Yesavage could be back in the mix next week, but for now the Blue Jays are in serious need of depth.
That’s where Fleming could come in. The soon-to-be 30-year-old southpaw turned in four innings of three-run ball in his lone long relief outing for the Blue Jays before being DFA’d. Even prior to that outing, Fleming had a 4.77 ERA and 4.65 FIP in the majors for his career. Even at Triple-A, he’s managed just a 4.18 ERA over his career. The lefty isn’t likely to offer impactful innings to the Blue Jays, but for a club desperate to eat innings with any sort of consistency Fleming could end up proving vital during this tough stretch for Toronto. Yariel Rodriguez, Lazaro Estrada, and perhaps Adam Macko are among the club’s other options who can offer multi-inning relief work or a spot start who aren’t already on the active roster or injured list.
Cody Bolton To Undergo Imaging For Mid-Back Tightness
Right-hander Cody Bolton only recently stepped into a beleaguered Astros rotation, but his spot already appears to be in danger. As noted by Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle, Bolton was removed from his start for the Astros today in the second inning due to what was described as “mid-back tightness.” That’s the same spot where Bolton was hit by a pitch during a spot start against the Rockies last week, and while he underwent imaging on the area in the aftermath of that incident he’s now set to undergo another round of imaging after the injury resurfaced tonight.
While the Astros haven’t said yet whether or not Bolton will require a trip to the injured list or how long he’ll be out, it certainly seems to be trending that way. Chandler Rome of The Athletic reported this evening that right-hander J.P. France is headed back to Seattle to re-join the Astros just one day after being optioned to the minors. As Rome notes, that’s only an allowable transaction if France is replacing a player on the injured list. That would certainly indicate that the Astros expect Bolton (or another pitcher with an as-of-yet unknown ailment) to require a trip to the shelf, though it’s at least possible that France is rejoining the team purely as an insurance policy against the possibility of Bolton heading to the IL.
Bolton, 28 in June, entered this year with a career 5.79 ERA in the majors but had been pitching rather well with the Astros in his limited opportunities. In 7 1/3 innings of three-run ball this year entering today, Bolton had struck out ten while walking just three. That all unraveled today, when he surrendered two runs on one hit and four walks before exiting with manager Joe Espada and a team trainer. France, 31, made his big league debut with the Astros back in 2023 and enjoyed a strong season at the back of Houston’s rotation. Since then, however, he’s pitched to a 7.31 ERA and 5.19 FIP in 32 innings of work at the big league level, including 2 2/3 innings of four-run ball earlier this year.
This potential switch comes against the backdrop of a litany of major pitching injuries for the Astros. Ace righty Hunter Brown is currently sidelined with a shoulder strain, and right-hander Cristian Javier was sidelined with the same ailment not long after. With Tatsuya Imai now back in Houston to be evaluated due to “arm fatigue,” that leaves the Astros’ rotation in tatters. If Bolton and Imai wind up on the IL, that will leave Mike Burrows and Lance McCullers Jr. as the only healthy starters on the major league roster. France could join that group, as could depth arms like Spencer Arrighetti and Colton Gordon.
Mets To Select Tommy Pham
The Mets are planning to select the contract of veteran outfielder Tommy Pham, according to a report from Will Sammon of The Athletic. The veteran outfielder is on a minor league deal with the club, so he’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster before he officially joins the club. That shouldn’t be a major obstacle, as the Mets’ 40-man currently stands at 37 players and will move up to 38 upon the addition of Pham. That means only an active roster move will be necessary to make Pham’s addition to the roster official, which could happen as soon as tomorrow given that Sammon writes Pham is expected to meet the team in L.A. for their series against the Dodgers.
The 38-year-old veteran signed a non-roster pact with the Mets on Opening Day. He’s gotten into just four games at the Single-A level since then, but a combination of need at the big league level and Pham’s status as a veteran hitter appear to have combined to give the Mets confidence in bringing him to the majors with only minimal time to get game-ready. He’ll be joining a beleaguered outfield group that recently lost Juan Soto to the injured list due to a calf strain that figures to leave him sidelined for at least another week or two. With Soto out of commission, the Mets have been relying on rookie Carson Benge, infielder Brett Baty, and bench bats like Tyrone Taylor and Jared Young in the outfield corners.
It’s a group that hasn’t inspired confidence so far. Young has hit well so far in a 23 plate appearance sample, but he’s got just 56 MLB games under his belt since making his debut with the Cubs back in 2022. Taylor’s .211/.250/.421 (91 wRC+) slash line this year isn’t exactly encouraging, and he was last an above-average MLB hitter by wRC+ in 2022 as a member of the Brewers. Benge has been heralded as the future of the franchise in the outfield and is a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport, but he’s hitting a paltry .130/.231/.196 (33 wRC+) in 14 games to kick of his MLB career. Baty showed signs of life last year after struggling to hit in the majors for the first few years of his career but currently sports a 60 wRC+ and a 29.4% strikeout rate while playing a mostly unfamiliar position.
All in all, that’s an outfield mix that could clearly use some veteran stability. That’s surely not an insignificant part of why the Mets were generally expected to carry veteran outfielder Mike Tauchman on their Opening Day roster following several successful years in Chicago and a torrid Spring Training, but Tauchman unfortunately underwent meniscus surgery just before Opening Day that will leave him sidelined into May. With Tauchman unable to play, the Mets will instead turn to a player who lacks his recent success but makes up for it with an impressive overall resume. Pham is now set to gear up for his 13th MLB campaign and has appeared in at least 116 games in each of the league’s past eight 162-game seasons. In that time, he’s suited up for ten different clubs and sports a career 111 wRC+ in more than 1200 MLB games.
Despite that history, it’s been a while now since Pham was a consistently above-average MLB player. Since the start of the 2020 season, Pham has slashed .241/.323/384 with a wRC+ of just 96, indicating he’s been 4% worse than the league average MLB hitter in that time. With that said, he’s just a few years removed from an extremely successful stint with the Mets. After signing on with the club for the 2023 season, Pham slashed .268/.348/.472 (124 wRC+) in 79 games for the Mets before being dealt to the eventual NL-champion Diamondbacks at that year’s trade deadline. If Pham can rediscover any of the magic from the last time he suited up for Queens, that would be a huge win for the Mets. Even the roughly league average consistency Pham has become known for in recent years would be a boost for the club, however, and he should get plenty of opportunities now that he’s being recalled to the majors.
Nick Pivetta Exits Start Due To Elbow Stiffness
Padres right-hander Nick Pivetta exited today’s game against the Rockies in the fourth inning today, and the Padres later announced that his departure was due to “right elbow stiffness.” Additional details about the situation are not yet known, but AJ Cassavell of MLB.com notes that Pivetta’s velocity was down on his final pitch and he appeared frustrated as he exited the game with manager Craig Stammen and a team trainer. After the game, Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune relayed comments from Stammen that indicated Pivetta may undergo imaging tomorrow depending on how he feels in the morning, but offered some optimism as he suggested that “there’s a world” where Pivetta makes his next start.
Cassavell notes that Pivetta previously missed a start during Spring Training last month due to what the Padres described at the time as “arm fatigue.” He wound up missing just that one start, and it’s unclear if that ailment has any connection to this current issue. Stammen’s update after the game appears to be fairly optimistic, but any amount of time missed by Pivetta would be a real blow to San Diego. Pivetta was the team’s top starter last year, as he pitched to a 2.87 ERA in 181 2/3 innings of work across 31 starts. That sort of production is never easy to replace, but it’s even more difficult for San Diego given that Dylan Cease left for Toronto in free agency while Joe Musgrove is not yet ready to return from his October 2024 Tommy John surgery.
If Pivetta does wind up missing time due to his ailing elbow, it seems likely that the Padres will turn to either Matt Waldron or Griffin Canning to fill the void. Both are presently on the injured list but have already begun rehab assignments and are looking fairly good as they do so. Waldron seems to be the further along of the two in terms of building up his pitch count and could be the first choice to join the rotation if Pivetta is placed on the shelf. Canning is on a guaranteed MLB deal and cannot be optioned to the minors, but Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests that he may not be ready to return to action until next month. If a fifth starter is needed before either Waldron or Canning is ready, JP Sears is also available at Triple-A alongside non-roster veterans like Marco Gonzales and Triston McKenzie.
That’s a decent amount of depth and it will be much-needed if Pivetta misses significant time. The rest of the rotation has had promising moments but comes with question marks. Michael King has gotten solid results but hasn’t looked quite as sharp as he did before his shoulder injury last season. Randy Vasquez has looked nothing short of excellent despite being more of a back-of-the-rotation arm in the past, and Walker Buehler is offering some encouraging peripherals, but German Marquez has looked over-matched so far this year with a 5.54 ERA and 7.50 FIP. The right-hander could be pushed out of the Padres’ rotation by Waldron’s return, though that of course won’t happen if Pivetta misses time and Waldron is instead filling in for the staff’s ace.
Christian Yelich Exits Game Due To Hamstring Injury
It’s been a tough few days for Brewers fans, as they’ve been swept at the hands of the Nationals this weekend. Today’s loss is the least of the club’s worries at the moment, however, as veteran star Christian Yelich exited today’s game due to an apparent injury. Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relayed that the initial diagnosis was “left hamstring tightness,” which can be a minor day-to-day issue or prove to be a more serious injury depending on the severity of the issue at hand.
While nothing has been confirmed so far, all signs point to this injury being on the more serious side of things. Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com) after the game that the team is “most likely to get bad news” regarding Yelich’s health status. An exact timeline for Yelich’s return can’t be known until imaging results come back, but it seems as though Murphy and the Brewers are expecting him to head to the injured list. Losing Yelich for a significant period would be a devastating blow for Milwaukee. The 34-year-old has looked excellent this year as the team’s everyday DH, as he entered today with a .327/.389/.469 slash line across 14 games this season.
That impressive start has been all the more important for the Brewers due to a variety of other injuries in the lineup. Budding star Jackson Chourio has yet to appear in an MLB game this year due to a fractured hand, and first baseman Andrew Vaughn suffered a hand injury of his own in the very first game of the 2026 season. That’s left the Brewers to rely on players like Brandon Lockridge and Jake Bauers as regulars in the lineup. Losing Yelich will force them to dip into their depth further, Youngster Tyler Black is off to a hot start at Triple-A this year and could be the next man up to replace Yelich in the lineup, though backup catcher and right-handed slugger Gary Sanchez could also get more opportunities with Yelich no longer in the mix at DH.
For all of Milwaukee’s struggles with injuries in the early going, they’ve been able to keep their head above water in a National League that has started the year extremely competitive. Their 8-7 record leaves them tied with the Cardinals for third place in the NL Central, but they’re just one game behind the Pirates for the division crown. If Milwaukee can stay the course in these early weeks, the eventual returns of players like Chourio and Yelich from injury should give them the boost they’ll need to remain competitive in a division that got a lot more crowded this past winter with aggressive offseasons from every NL Central club (aside from St. Louis, who fully launched their rebuild over the offseason).
Braves To Designate Martin Perez For Assignment
The Braves are designating left-hander Martin Perez for assignment, as Walt Weiss told reporters (including Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal Constitution). He’s being replaced on the active roster by southpaw Dylan Dodd, who is being recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett.
Perez, 35, is now in the 15th season of his MLB career. He was signed by the Rangers out of Venezuela and made his pro debut all the way back in 2008, but didn’t make it to the big leagues until 2012. Since then, he’s spent his career pitching to more or less league average results as a back-of-the-rotation starter and swing man. He signed with the White Sox last year but spent most of the 2025 season on the injured list with elbow and shoulder issues. For the few outings Perez was able to make last year, he was effective with a 3.54 ERA and 4.24 FIP in 56 1/3 innings of work.
That wasn’t enough to get him a big league deal headed into his age-35 season, but he did latch on with Atlanta on a minor league pact. Though he didn’t initially make the team out of Spring Training, early injuries in the rotation led Atlanta to select Perez to the majors to help eat innings. He did so capably, offering 14 1/3 innings of five-run ball across three appearances for the Braves prior to his DFA. He’s struck out just six in that time, but the results when healthy lately have been solid. He’s posted a 3.46 ERA and 4.46 FIP between the White Sox, Padres, and Braves since getting traded to San Diego at the 2024 trade deadline.
Of course, that hardly makes him a true-talent 3.46 ERA pitcher at this stage of his career. Perez has a long history of volatility when it comes to his results, which has resulted in him making an All-Star appearance in 2022 while struggling to even stay within the range of league average in other years. Taken together, Perez has a career 100 ERA+ across more than 1600 big league innings and should be expected to produce more of that back-of-the-rotation, innings-eating work as long as health permits.
That could make the lefty an intriguing option for any number of teams struggling with pitching injuries in the early going. The Blue Jays, Cubs, and Astros are among the teams that have sent multiple key pitchers to the injured list in recent weeks, and any of them might be willing to roll the dice on Perez and his modest salary in the $3.5MM range. All of those clubs entered 2026 as expected contenders, but even a non-contending club like the White Sox could pick Perez up and slot him into the rotation to help stabilize their rotation after Shane Smith‘s struggles led to him being optioned to the minors this past week.
If Perez does not get plucked off waivers by another club, he could accept an outright assignment to the minors with Atlanta, where he would wait for his next opportunity with the club. Another option would be to elect free agency and test the open market. With that said, Perez might benefit from accepting an outright given that the Braves have their own pitching needs and will surely call upon him again in relatively short order if he stays with the organization.
For now, however, his roster spot will go to Dodd. The lefty has a career 5.68 ERA in the majors but posted a more respectable 3.60 ERA in 35 innings as a relief arm for the Braves last year. He figures to serve as a long reliever for Atlanta in the coming days, a role where he should prove valuable in the short-term while Atlanta uses upcoming days off in the schedule as an opportunity to utilize a four-man rotation. As noted by Mark Bowman of MLB.com, the Braves won’t need a fifth starter until April 21 given the structure of their upcoming schedule. At that point, Perez could rejoin the MLB roster if he’s still in the organization.